In hospitals and the like, sterilization processing is required to be performed on objects to be sterilized, such as a bandage for treatment, a scalpel, a pair of forceps, and a surgical gown, which need to be sterilized. The steam sterilizer including a pressure vessel that houses the objects to be sterilized is often used for sterilizing such objects to be sterilized as described above.
General steam sterilizer acts so as to sterilize the object to be sterilized by introducing saturated steam into the pressure vessel to pressurize and heat it, and keeping a predetermined pressure and temperature for a predetermined time (refer to, for example, patent literature 1).
The steam sterilizer described in the patent literature 1 is the pressure vessel having a double-can structure in which a sterilization chamber that houses the object to be sterilized is formed of an inner can and an outer can. The portion between the inner can and the outer can of the pressure vessel is a jacket portion, and the saturated steam is introduced into the jacket portion. The inner can is heated by the saturated steam introduced into the jacket portion.
Furthermore, the saturated steam is introduced into an inside of the inner can. The inner can is pressurized and heated up to the predetermined pressure with the saturated steam introduced, and heated up to the predetermined temperature by the jacket portion around the inner can.
The inner can is kept at the predetermined pressure and the predetermined temperature with the saturated steam for the predetermined time, and thus the sterilization is performed on the object to be sterilized housed in the inner can. After the elapse of the predetermined time, a gas-discharge process for discharging the saturated steam from the inner can is executed. In the inner can set in a vacuum state by the gas-discharge process, moisture adhering to the object to be sterilized is evaporated and dried.